The third installment of Total War: Warhammer 3 had a rocky start, as did its predecessors. Over the past year, the updates and DLC gave the entire game a much better feel. With the resurgence of interest in the game, it’s worth checking how well the factions found within perform so we prepared for you Total War Warhammer 3 Tier List.
With the Total War Warhammer 3 Tier List, you will learn which are the best factions currently in the game and which factions you should avoid. Make sure that you check out the Best Total War Warhammer 3 Mods that will make your gameplay even better.
Tier System and grades
Tier S – Overpowered
Tier A – Balanced
Tier B – Slightly Underpowered
Tier C – Underpowered
Tier F – The Worst
Total War Warhammer 3 Tier List
| Faction | Tier Rating |
|---|---|
| Exiles of Khorne | S |
| Ecstatic Legion | S |
| Puppets of Misrule | S |
| Oracles of Tzeentch | A |
| Kislev | A |
| The Legion of the Gorequeen | A |
| Grand Cathay | B |
| Seekers of Slaanesh | B |
| The Fecundites | B |
| The Legion of Chaos | B |
| The Ogre Kingdoms | C |
| The Poxmakers of Nurgle | C |
S Tier
Exiles of Khorne
The bloodiest of the bunch come up on top. Despite all the vile associations with other demon lords, Khorne is the one with the bloodiest champions. Appropriately, their campaign and play style are all about brute frontline force. There are no missile or magical units in this Exiles of Khorne’s roster, taking an extreme melee approach as the key solution to any problem.
Don’t worry, this single-minded focus is the strength of the entire faction. Having multiple devastating choices for your army will lead to some intense showdowns. Even with the usual range-focused nature of Total War Warhammer games, Exiles of Khorne manage to dominate. Disturbing enemy ranks is easy, and sustaining punishment is only slightly harder.
On the campaign map, Khorne’s champion Skarbrand only has to slay foes to trigger potent effects. These effects can escalate hard until Skarbrand finally overwhelms his enemies. Fight as much as possible, it will only grow your power. It’s a very one-track mind sort of approach to the game, but this powerful feature makes Exiles of Khorne the strongest faction.
Ecstatic Legion
The Total War Warhammer 3 roster got four new entries with the Immortal Empires update. Among these, Azazel’s Ecstatic Legion ranks highest. Their units being comprised of Slaanesh demons and Warriors of Chaos both.
The Ecstatic Legions get all the good, fast units of Slaneesh into their roster. Providing them with incredible offensive power. However, the downside of these units is how easy they are to kill. To aid that, Ecstatic Legion has Warriors of Chaos’ powerful frontline infantry to sustain damage.
The most consistent strategy with this faction is to send your tankier units into the fray. After the armies clash, flank with infantry for maximum devastation. The quality of this strategy only improved over the patches, which removed some of the odd bugs tied to charges.
On the campaign map, Ecstatic Legion is no less dangerous. Rather than the super-aggressive assault of Khorne, this faction has ample trickery to use. These come in the form of seducing enemy units before a fight, which ends up in units joining your side. In addition, if a lord is defeated in battle, they will gain a Gift of Slaanesh. The trait will reinforce Slaanesh’s armies in the area.
Puppets of Misrule
Among the four Chaos Gods, Tzeentch is most known for his magic. This is reflected in the game as well. Powerful casts, impressive ranged units, and magical mechanics on the map all contribute to that feeling. However, the pure version of the army doesn’t do well in terms of tankiness. On the other hand, their Warriors of Chaos counterpart suffers no such issues.
Puppets of Misrule have access to Chaos Warriors which provide ample sustain on the front lines. The powerful ranged units of Tzeentch also cover for the weakness Warriors of Chaos had ever since their introduction. In total, this makes for a powerful army with powerful synergies between units.
The Puppets of Misrule are capable of using great magic on both the battlefield and campaign map. By accumulating the faction resource, you’ll be able to exert powerful debuffs and even take control of settlements immediately. This is immensely helpful at any stage of the game, resulting in impressive jumps in power for your whole army.
A Tier
Oracles of Tzeentch
Kairos Fatweaver leads full Daemon version of the Tzeentch’s forces. Most anything that can be said about this faction has been said beforehand. Oracles of Tzeentch lack proper frontline fighters which impact the value of their incredible ranged units as well.
However, the powerful presence on the campaign map only improves with Oracles of Tzeentch. Allowing the player to further impact all the unfortunate settlements through magic. All you need is their faction resource, souls, to achieve great effects all around. If you can forgive the weak frontline or simply prefer not to play Puppets of Misrule, the Oracles of Tzeentch will serve you well.
Kislev
The first human army on this list, Kislev ranks high. The reasoning for that stems from their versatile and potent roster. No matter your choice of the legendary lord to start with, there are some key benefits you’ll benefit from.
Kislev armies have a ton of units that can switch between ranged and melee abilities. This alone makes Kislev difficult to deal with. Additionally when it comes to potent ranged units, which become only slightly less competent in melee. On top of the hybrid units, Kislev has powerful polar bears and ice magic to go. Acting as wrecking ball and control options respectively.
Campaign map effects are a bit duller than those of Chaos Demons. Orienting around public support of your chosen lord. It has a similar feel to the Empire in older games, with some added magical effects you can trigger on the map.
The Legion of the Gorequeen
Valkia The Bloody leads yet another powerful Khorne army into the fray. Weaker than the Exiles of Khorne but slightly different in abilities, picking this faction will get you mixed access to both Warriors of Chaos and Exiles of Khorne armies.
The two best aspects of this army are the Bloodletter units and the Bloodletting mechanic on the map. The campaign map is your oyster with this ability granting you bonuses for winning multiple battles in a row/
Valkia the Bloody also regains movement speed after winning a battle too which will allow you to face more foes in a single turn. Steamrolling power of this faction is intense, only increasing as you go on.
B tier
Grand Cathay
Another one of the human factions, Grand Cathay offers an interesting Ying Yang mechanic and a potent starting location but not much else. Despite a decently sized roster, there are few standout units that make the initial mechanic a bit tougher to utilize.
You’ll spend a lot of time while playing the game trying to manage your levels of Ying and Yang in the game to optimize the bonuses from this mechanic. It’s paramount for success, only second to managing the Great Bastion fort. This is a great place to reinforce the defenses of your provinces and funnel troops through. The otherwise meek showing does place Grand Cathay far lower on the list.
Seekers of Slaanesh
With the Seekers of Slaanesh, you’ll have to use some great micromanagement skills. They can punch far above their weight, especially with chariots, but cannot strike from the front. That will lead to poorer effectiveness of their charge. By striking from the side or the back, your chariots will end up deleting entire units in a heartbeat.
Other than chariots, there are a ton of other fast units to pick from. The hit-and-run tactics are plentiful but if you want speed in a large, powerful package, look no further than monsters.
Choose from Keepers of Secrets or Fiends of Slaanesh, both of which can devastate frontlines easily. Keepers of Secrets is often the preferred choice due to the sheer number of available features on them, but the fiend is also fruitful.
Seduce and Gift of Slaanesh mechanics are also present with this roster. Their influence hampered solely due to the overall less versatile roster. They still provide ample presence and threat on the map though.
The Fecundites
Finally, one of the Nurgle-aligned factions. The Fecundites are privy to most of the campaign features found in the Nurgle playstyle while having less pronounced downsides. Their resilience is only being reinforced by Chaos Warriors on the frontlines.
However, the Nurgle units are incredibly slow. Requiring aid from their Chaos Warrior allies, who can pin the enemies down better. Chaos Knights of Nurgle may have their speed reduced by the mark of Nurgle but it doesn’t matter much. They are still fast enough as cavalry to tie units down by the time Nurgle units arrive.
The Legion of Chaos
If you’d prefer to get a little bit of each Chaos God or change as you play, The Legion of Chaos may be what you want. Get a bit of everything at the start of the game, from Blue Horrors to Bloodletters.
Campaign map abilities are not too thrilling. The best you can hope for is simpler versions of the abilities the other Chaos Gods offer. The truly unique detail is the ability to customize the entire Legendary Lord that is Daemon Prince. Sadly, no matter the build you go for, the Daemon Prince will be mediocre in power.
C Tier
The Ogre Kingdoms
Ogres made their debut as recruitable mercenaries in Total War Warhammer 2. Their strong charge and high health made them perfect for supplanting the downsides of certain factions. However, Total War Warhammer 3 made them a whole faction with mixed results.
The Ogre Kingdoms have a lot of potent units for any role, all of them devastating frontlines with the aforementioned powerful charge. Unfortunately, the game gives them worse chances when auto-resolving, which will probably result in a lot of financial issues.
On the map, you’ll be able to invade enemy territory to get resources. This is done through somewhat poorly reinforced camps which you’ll have to protect for maximum efficiency.
The Poxmakers of Nurgle
While no faction in the game is bad, there has to be somebody at the bottom of the list. In Total War Warhammer 3’s case, Poxmakers of Nurgle takes this spot. They have the most disadvantages that also hamper their positives.
Nurgle units are tough, powerful, and slow. The ranged and fast units can often kite them across the battlefield, making each battle take far longer. This will also expedite your losses which can be a huge issue if you aren’t doing well.
The faction also gets access to various plagues to spread. These will hamper the performance of enemy armies but have the unfortunate downside of being mixed in impact. This is mostly due to a decent number of them not being too impactful on AI armies. Fecundites are a much better option for those willing to play around with this mechanic.